Press and PR photography coverage of Diversity Ashley Banjo in Stockton on Tees.

Thousands of people turned out in July to help Britain’s Got Talent winner Ashley Banjo and Diversity dance group get Stockton dancing.

Part of the Sky 1 series Ashley Banjo: the Town That Danced Again, the day drew huge crowds on to Stockton High Street next to the Town Hall, where specially constructed stage platforms had been set up for the professional dancers.

Ashley Banjo is an English street dancer, choreographer and actor, and the programme was all about celebrating Stockton’s dance heritage and reinvigorate the whole town by bringing together everyone from shop assistants and librarians, to care workers and teachers to get them dancing in the streets.

The day was building up to be the hottest of the summer when I arrived an hour before the start of the event. I know the open air space well so I had already visualised where the best photography vantage points would be. This was a big event for the region and as well as the Sky 1 team there were a few other professional photographers from Sunderland to Harrogate there and of course nearly everyone in the audience had their camera phones out.

I knew I would be carrying my kit all day so took my monopod and a handful of lenses including a mega wide angle. The crowd was packed so the monopod and camera set on 2 sec timer were particularly useful in getting shots above the heads and with some good views of the various stages. 

As this live event was also being filmed, several of the dance routines were done in segments and repeated until the director was satisfied. It was interesting to see the clock in Stockton’s Town centre being stopped and rewound for continuity several times!

I was kept busy darting about documenting not just the dancing but the street party atmosphere of the day too. Everyone was in party mood, including my daughter and her friends who had gone along. Moving through the crowd I swapped out my lenses to do some fly on the wall photos and get some close ups of the dancers as they encouraged the crowd to join in, choreographed by Ashley Banjo himself. Some of the youngest ones were particularly good, and showed no sign of nerves at all the cameras going off as they performed.

At one point the kind people manning the Vodafone stand let me take some shots from their stand overlooking the sea of people, which was a fantastic vantage point to see everything that was going on.

 It was a brilliant day that generating some amazing pictures, and Ashley’s tweet from @AshleyBanjo summed up its success in a nutshell:  ‘What a day...What a night....Amazing times with amazing people. Stockton we love you and we will miss you #TTTD #20DV’.

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography

Runners to Royals - North East Editorial and Press Photographer

I remember my very first celebrity photograph. I was a really keen athlete as a young man and I even qualified for Scotland's national shot putt finals at Edinburgh Meadowbank Stadium. I was just a teenager when I then saw Scottish Olympic sprinter Alan Wells, and being unsure of myself I tried to casually get a shot before eventually asking him if I could take a photograph. He was quite curt and it taught me a lesson about how to get the best pictures when working with minor and major celebrities, VIPs and royalty. I’m not star stuck at all now – I wouldn’t get the pictures if I was.

One of my first big assignments as professional press photographer in Scotland was covering the visit of John Major for Dumfries and Galloway Council. It was my first experience of being part of a newspaper press pack, and having to be courteous but still get the right shots for the picture desks.

In my days on newspapers and then after I set up as a freelance editorial photographer in the North East I must have photographed thousands of politicians, celebrities and members of the royal family. Like every other north east commercial photography assignment, the trick is to work fast and spot the shot before it happens.

People in the sports world are usually preoccupied with doing their job when you point a camera at them, and it’s important to be there for the action shot. One shot I took out of a car alongside Dame Tanni Grey Thompson was a fast decision that worked well, and one that help me win a photography award.

Some of the other sporting names I’ve photographed have been great fun. George Best was a great character and a gentleman, and no problem to photograph. Film and music stars cross my path regularly, and I’ve photographed people including Morrissey, Victoria Beckham, Marc Owen, Billie Piper, Caprice, Stella McCartney and Bob Hoskins too, when he was filming in nearby Whitby.

I love getting a quirky commission, especially if you are part of selected

few. For instance I was the only North East photographer to be chosen by global news agency Reuters to shoot American artist Spencer Tunick’s famous Naked City art installation, which saw 1700 people pose naked in Gateshead’s Baltic Square, and my pictures were picked up by international media within moments of the shoot. 

Photographing actor of MartinClunes portraits was another great job.  As part of the BBC Islands of Britain series he visited Piel Island near Morecambe to see the ceremony where the King of Piel Island gets crowned by beer poured over his head. I was offcourse happy when my photos of Martin made The Times and other national newspapers - job done!

My assignment in Kosovo in the 1990s was slightly less glamorous. I went out with the British Army, shadowing Brigadier Richard Dannett as part of a commission to cover the Green Howard regiment, based at Catterick. The sleeping accommodation was fairly basic and we flew in helicopters, went out on night manoeuvres and generally, wherever the Green Howards were going, I went too.

In general, less well known celebrities can be the most awkward to photograph, while top stars and royalty are easy to work with. People like the Queen and the Prince of Wales, who are used to having their photograph taken, understand what makes a good shot, and are generally fuss-free and very obliging.


I remember how relaxed the Countess of Wessex was when she opened a shop in Northallerton, and a commission to document the Duchess of Cornwall’s visit to Teesside, to lend her support to a literacy campaign was an equally smooth day.

Clients who book me for celebrity, VIP and royal photography range from councils to north east newspapers and uk news agencies. Some of the pictures I take are not for public consumption, such as some of the ones I took on the occasion (some inside shots) of the Duchess of Cambridge’s first visit to the North East, following her appointment as patron of Action on Addiction. 

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography